Monday, 17 October 2011

This is a really warming thick soup - great for the cold weather. There seems to be a debate on the internet as to whether split peas need soaking. I gave up trying to work out which were the more reliable sources and soaked them overnight anyway. I used about 275 g dried peas which gave 500 g soaked peas.

Methods1) Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the carrots, onion and celery and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.2) Add the stock, bay leaf and split peas to the pan, cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 hours, stirring regularly (I found the split peas started to stick to the bottom of the pan by the end of the 2 hours, so keep an eye on them).3) Remove the bay leaf, blend the soup until smooth and serve hot. Serves 4.

My favourite beans are black beans so when I heard that you could use them to make brownies I decided I had to have a go. The original recipe called for chocolate chips, but I replaced them with walnuts. I might try half and half next time.IngredientsCooked black beans - 400 gEggs - 3Vegetable oil - 3 tbspCocoa powder - 20 gSalt - pinchVanilla extract - 1 tspCaster sugar - 150 gChopped walnuts - 85g

Methods1) Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a 20cm square baking tin.2) Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract and sugar in a blender. Blend until smooth, stir in two thirds of the chopped walnuts and then pour into the tin. Sprinkle over the remaining walnuts.3) Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.